SAI 25: The World's Most Valuable Digital Startups

Welcome to The SAI 25: The World's Most Valuable Digital Startups! Start >

Wondering how much your private company is worth? (Or your stock options in your private company?) Curious where your company ranks in the pantheon of digital market values? Wondering which companies might be next in line for a blockbuster IPO? Then you've come to the right place.

In the SAI 25, we value and rank some of the world's leading private digital companies (not all--some. We hope to get them all eventually, but we're going to need a lot more help from you). The SAI 25 is an iterative list: Thanks to input from our readers, sources, and our Advisory Board, it will get more accurate and comprehensive every day. Please help us make it better--by posting insight and information to the company pages or sending to tips@alleyinsider.com. You can nominate new companies, share additional info, or tell us why you think a company deserves a higher or lower valuation.

Scroll down for the current SAI 25. Or, if you can't stand the suspense, click the "Start" button. Scroll though the list using the buttons on the right side of each company page, under the SAI 25 link.* Start >

Not Your Grandmother's Company List

The SAI 25 is not a static brag-sheet, updated and published once a year. On the contrary: it changes as facts and markets change--and, in this industry, they change fast. Private company values change in real-time, just like public-company values, and so will the SAI 25 (If you want to see the up-to-minute value of your company, just click here).

So far, the SAI 25 ranks the world's 25 most valuable digital companies and 25 additional "Contenders." As we get to know more companies, we will add them to the list. (We'll be adding another 25 or so in a couple of weeks). Some of today's SAI 25 will soon stagnate or tumble in value, and they will quickly be replaced with rising stars. But we'll rank all of the companies we follow--even those outside of the SAI 25.

The SAI 25 is a global list and includes companies in Europe and Asia as well as in the US (so if you've never heard of some of the companies, that's probably why).

Check Back Every Month For Your New Valuation!

We only have limited information for many companies on the list, and as we learn more, our valuations may change-- sometimes radically. If you disagree with a valuation, please feel free to tell us why. (We keep all input on background, so don't worry about sharing financial information that you don't otherwise release publicly.)

With the help of our readers, we will continuously refine the SAI 25, incorporating new information, adding new companies, and updating valuations as conditions change. We will also formally re-value and re-order the companies once a month, so check back frequently to see how you're doing.

Methodology

We use a relatively consistent methodology to value the SAI 25, which we describe in detail here. All valuation estimates are subjective, though, and they are highly dependent on information. If your first reaction upon seeing a particular valuation is to curse us or roll your eyes, it might just be that we didn't have enough information. (Or it might be that you're spending too much time reading your own press releases.) In any event, if you think our valuation is off, and you want next month's to be more accurate, please share some of your information with us (on background, of course).

Like public companies, the value of private companies change in real-time, but there's no convenient way to track these changes...until now. We've created a real-time tool, theSAI 25 Live, that indexes the value of the SAI 25 companies to the NASDAQ. The SAI 25 Live updates the values in real-time (with a 20-minute delay). So if you're jealous of all your friends at public companies who can recalculate their net worth all day, just check out the SAI 25 Live. This will tell how much your stock options are worth right now.

Acknowledgments

Before moving on to the initial list, we want to thank the hundreds of companies, investors, and executives who have taken time over the past few months to submit nominations and share information with us. Thanks also to our teammates Jay Yarow and Ricky McRoskey, who did the bulk of the background research. Thanks to our SAI 25 Advisory Board -- Kevin Ryan, Dwight Merriman, David Siminoff, Danny Rimer, Jim McGregor and their colleagues--who shared thoughts and helped us refine the list. And thanks to our generous sponsor, Sun Microsystems, who has made the whole project possible.